Presented by John Higgins, MGH Center for Systems Biology

Abstract:

Circulating blood cells constantly interrogate almost all organs and tissues, communicating in parallel and at high throughput, detecting and initiating response to pathology and disease far earlier and more precisely than current clinical diagnostic tests or interventions.  Even crude mechanistic models of blood cell population dynamics reveal new features of human physiology and enable earlier and more accurate disease diagnosis and management.  I will describe a model of the volume and hemoglobin dynamics of circulating red blood cell populations and show how this model combined with routinely available clinical data (1) provides insight into the process of RBC turnover in individual patients and (2) enables the early diagnosis of anemia and a wide range of related disease as well as more precise management of diabetes.